More than one-in-20 parents attempted to force their children’s way into
popular primary schools last year amid rising competition for the most
sought-after places.

Figures show that the families of 47,000 pupils – 5.6 per cent nationally – lodged official appeals against decisions to reject them from a school of their choice.

The number of challenges has almost doubled in just four years because of parental concerns over a shortage of places at the best state primaries.

Of those granted an appeal, almost a quarter successfully fought their way into a chosen school.

But the data – published by the Department for Education – revealed that parents face a postcode lottery when it comes to challenging admissions rulings in England.

In the London boroughs of Brent, Kensington and Chelsea and Richmond, no parents successfully fought primary school appeals. Numbers were as low as five per cent in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester’s Tameside and the London boroughs of Hounslow, Newham and Wandsworth.

But in nine local council areas, more than half of primary school appeals were successful. This included Derbyshire, Durham, Hull, North Yorkshire and Shropshire.

It is feared that competition for places at the most sought-after schools will intensify in coming years because of rising birth rates combined with an influx of migrants in some areas.

Today, the Government said it was investing £4bn to create additional primary school capacity and insisted reforms had been introduced to allow parents to set up their own “free schools” in areas with the most demand for high-quality places.

But Matt Richards, from schoolappeals.com, which was set up to help parents challenge admissions rulings, said there was still a “big shortage” of places in some cities, particularly Birmingham and London.

He reported a rising number of appeals from immigrants, particularly those from eastern Europe.

"People from these communities come to the UK legally with their children,” he said. “Secondary schools may well be able to accommodate that influx, but there are certain areas where they haven't got spare places and they might not be able to build or expand a school.

“It's much more difficult to build on primary schools due normally to more constricted sites."

According to figures, 46,905 appeals were lodged by parents against primary school admissions in 2010/11 – accounting for 5.6 per cent of total pupil numbers.

This was up from 42,070 – 5.1 per cent – 12 months earlier. In 2006/7, just 26,435 appeals were lodged, representing 3.2 per cent of the school roll.

Of the primary appeals lodged this year, 32,355 were heard by a panel. Some 7,380 – or 22.8 per cent – were decided in favour of the parents. This was up on the 7,045 successful appeals in 2009/10.

But the figures showed a drop in the number of parents appealing against secondary school admissions.

The total number of challenges dropped from 43,095 to 36,565 in just 12 months – accounting for 5.9 per cent of pupils.

Mr Richards suggested this reflected growing satisfaction with schools on offer to parents.

"Certainly with the move towards academies, secondaries are seeming to get better, so I think parents are generally happier and have greater choice," he said.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “Every parent should have the choice of a good local school for their child – our reforms will help create thousands of high-class new school places.

“Through the new admissions code, we are allowing the best schools to expand to meet demand. We are opening new free schools where parents want them… and we are more than doubling targeted investment at areas facing the greatest pressure on numbers; over £4bn up to 2015 to create thousands of new school places.”